Open Educational Resources (OER): Open Textbooks

Student Impact

In a recent study, the College Board found that undergraduate students can expect to pay upwards of $1,200 a year for ​​​textbooks and supplies. The cost of textbooks impacts student success and retention. Students who participated in the 2012 Florida Student Textbook Survey answered that, at least once over the course of their academic careers, the cost of required textbooks caused them to:

63.6%

Not purchase the required textbook

49.2%

Take fewer courses

45.1%

Not register for a specific course

33.9%

Earn a poor grade because I could not afford to buy the textbook

26.7%

Drop a course

17.0%

Fail a course because I could not afford to buy the textbook

Open textbooks...

Save students money. Open textbooks offer both digital editions and printed copies. Students can download digital editions for free or order print copies at a low price.

Allow for flexible content. Students can access the content in their preferred format, on their preferred platform. Professors can customize the material to match their course needs. Video, audio, and other interactive content can be embedded into digital editions.

Help students succeed. A recent, multi-institutional study showed that students using open textbooks in their courses performed as well or better than students using traditional textbooks and that they enrolled in more courses the following semester. Students using online open textbooks also gain ICT (information communication technology) skills.

What makes a textbook open?

Open textbooks are textbooks that have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. - Open Textbook Library

Like traditional textbooks, open textbooks are written by experts in the field and undergo a process of peer review and professional editing and development. Unlike the traditional publishing model, publishers and authors of open textbooks are paid for their labor upfront by the funding organization or grant, instead of relying on sales to pay back their investments.

Sources of Open Textbooks

BCcampus has curated a collection of open textbooks that align with the top 40 highest enrolled first and second year post-secondary subject areas in British Columbia. Many books have been reviewed by faculty and include ancillary resources. Particular strengths include

An index of online textbooks in MIT OpenCourseWare, including open-licensed electronic versions of print books, self-published online books, or course notes which are so thorough that they serve as an alternative to a conventional textbook.

Milne Library at SUNY Geneseo is excited to share with you an OER search tool that we have developed called OASIS (Openly Available Sources Integrated Search). We have gathered more than 155,000+ records from 52 different sources that have been carefully selected in collaboration with SUNY OER Services. Some of the features of OASIS include the ability to limit search results by license, type, subject, source, and reviews available. Through OASIS, you can also suggest new sources to be added to the catalog and/or share items of interest through email.

Open textbooks are textbooks that have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. These books have been reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess their quality.